The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-04-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn Preacher Defines
A Live Church
Bsnevolent Hearts, Earnest Work and
Good Singing EssentIaIs-The Final
Salvation of Precious Souls the
Aim and End OF All

coined. In his first discourse after his re
turn home he todd his congregation what
m his opinion, Constituted "A Liv
Church" taking for his text:
Unto the angel o; the Church in SmyTn'
write; These things saith the first and th
last whSh was dead and is alive.
know thy works, and tribulation, and pow
erty, but thou art r1ch.-Rev. 3D.. So
Smyrna was a great city OF the ancients
bounded on three sides by mountains. 1
was the central emporium OF the Levan
tine trade In that prosperous and
brilliant city there was q Christian Church
established. Afterit had existed for awhile
ii was racked down by an earthquake, i
was rebuilt Then it was consumed
by conhagration that swept over
the entire city That church wen
through fire and trouble and dis
aster but kept on TO great spiritual
prosperity. The fact was, that church
had the grace Of God, an ever-active prIn
cip!e. Had it been otherwise. all the
grandeur Of architecture and all the
pomp of surroundings would only have
been the ornament of death-thc garlands
OF coffin, the plumes of hearse.
1t may be profitable to consider what
arc the elements of a live Church
l remark in the first place that one
characteristic Of such Church is punctu.
aHty in meeting its engagements. All
cCcles iastiCal institutions have financial
relations and they ought to meet their
obligations al the bank. When a Church
OF Gud is not as faithful in its promises as
the Bank Of England. it ceases TO be u
Church of God. 1t ought to be understood
that prayers can not paint q church. aud
prayers can not pay the winters coal bill
and prayers can not meet the iRs1rfapcc:
and that while prayers ca9s as thousand
things, there are a tho1and things that
prayers can not do
Prayer for Any particular church viii
never r"Ich hcavea-high unless i. goes
down PoClht-deep. In my church at the
West there was a man of comfortahi {
means who used o.pray for his pastor in
such elongated style that ne became a
nuisance to the pravcr-meeting; asking
God, In prayer that was almost without
Ceasing, that the pastor might be blessed
an his basket and in his store, while the
fact was he never paid anything. II we
pray for the advancement CT the church
and do not OF our means contribute for to
advancement, our prayer is only mocl.cry
Let the church Of God then meet its OBJ
legations on the outs ide, and let the mem
bers Of the congregation meet the ob,iga-
tons on the inside, and the church will he
hnauct&iiS prosperous.
punetuality in the attendance on the
house Of the Lord. If tho service begins
at l0:30 in the morning, the regular con-
creation of live church will not come at
lU:43; II the service - to begin at Z 80 In
the evening, the regular regation Of a
live caurcn will not come at 1:45 In some
churches have noticed tho people are al
ways tardy. There are some people who
are always Ia.e. They were born too
late, and the probability is they will die
too late. The Tustling of dresses up the
aislcs, and the slamming of doors, and the
treading OF heavy fcctt1s poor iDspi ration
for minister. 1t requires great abstrac-
ton in pastors mind 10 proceed with the
preliminary exercises of the church whe n
one-half of tho audience seated are look.
ing round to see the o.her half come in
Such difference of attendance
upon the house of God may be a
difference Of timepieces, but the live
church of.which am speak ing ought to go
by railroad time, and that is pretty well
understood in all our communities. There
is one HYMN that o411t to be sung in a
great many Christian families on Sabbath
morning:
Ea;ly my God without delay.
haste 10 seek Thy place.
Another Characteristic OF a live church
N the exercises. A stranger can tell by
the way the first tune starts whether
there is any life there. A church that
does not sing is a dead church 1t is aw full
To find a cold drizzle of music coming
down from the organ loft while all the
people beneath 1t sit in silence. When a
tune wanders around. lonely and I'M
friended, and is finally lost amid the
arches because the people do not join n
It, there is not much melody made unto
TIC Lord. In Heaven they all sing though
some there can not sing half as well as
others.
The Methodist Church has sung all
around the world and gone from conquest
10 conquest, among ether things because
il is singing church: and any Chris ian
church organization tat wi enthusiasm
performs this part Of is duty will 90 on
from triumph to triumph. A church of
God that can sing can do any thing that
ought to be done, We go forth into this
holy war with the Bible in one hand and "a
hymn-booH in the other. O, ye who used
TO sing the praises Of the Lord and have
got out 81 The hal bit, take your harps down
from the Willows.
lam glad 10 know that, as a church, we
are making advancement in this respect
When ] came TO be your pas tor we had an
excellent choir in the little chapel
and they sang very sweetly TO US
Sabbath by sabbath: bar ever and
anon there was trouble, for you
know that the, Choirs IN the United States
are the WaterloOs where the great battles
60 on. One Sunday they VII sing Ike
angels, and the next Sunday they will be
mad, and VIII not sing at al. We re
solved to settle all the dilnculties, and
have one skillful man at the organ and
20 4 IC, r,,.r 0F bon.
and now. from Sabbath 10 sabbath, the
song comes up like the voice Of lightly
thunderings.
Let those refuse 10 sing
Who never knew our God:
But children of the Heavenly King
Should speak their joys abroad.
On the way to triumph that never ends,
and pleasures that never die-sing!
Another characteristic Of a live church
is a f1ourishing Sabbath-school. 1t is too
late in the history of the Christian
Church TO argue the benefit of
such an institution. The Sabbath
school is not u supplement TO the
church; it is its right arm. But you say
there are dead churches that have Sab
bath-schools. Yes, but the Sabbath
schools are dead, too. II is q dead mother
holding in her arms a dead child. But
when the SUPERINTENDENT, and teachers,
and scholars come On Sabbath afternoons
together, their faces glowing with interest
and enthusiasm, and their songs are
heard all through the exercises and at the